property news India

Interest in buying property online is on the rise in India. In 2014, Tata Housing's National Home Buying Day initiative saw more than 800 online applications pouring in for 200 housing units spread across five projects. Till date, the company has sold around 1,500 apartments online.

Country's debt-laden property developers are turning to deep discounts, free parking spots and even gimmicks like gifts of gold coins and motorbikes as they struggle to sell billions of dollars worth of as-yet unfinished homes.

The Union Budget 2015-16 highlighted that India's economy was currently in a bright spot in the global context. This was mainly attributed to reduced vulnerabilities concerning the economic slowdown, persistent inflation & currency fluctuations.

If you are thinking of taking a home loan and are confident of generating a surplus every month after paying the regular EMI, you can opt for loan schemes with an overdraft facility that not only cut interest payments significantly, but also reduce the loan tenure.

Property prices will rise slightly with proposed hike in service tax to 14 per cent, according to real state industry associations CREDAI and NAREDCO. The Finance Minister on February 28 proposed increase in service tax to 14 per cent from 12.36%.

The good news is that many bankers are of the opinion that despite RBI's decision not to cut rates, interest rates on home loans are likely to soften in the near future, as the liquidity in the banking system has improved.

India seems to be at the top of global real estate investors' priority list with the country recording the third highest growth in investment volume of over 140% at $5 billion in 2014 compared to 2.1 billion in 2013.

Investments in Indian real estate last year jumped more than two-fold to over $ 5 billion, helping the country figure in the list of world's top 20 property destinations, according to consultant Cushman & wakefield.